Amazon.com Inc. workers nationwide went on strike Thursday at seven of the company’s delivery hubs, just days before Christmas.
Workers affiliated with the Teamsters union walked the picket lines, holding signs, in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Southern California, Skokie, Ill. and elsewhere in what organizers called the largest strike against the tech giant.
A Teamsters representative said the workers joined picket lines after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union had set for contract negotiations. The union claims it represents 10,000 Amazon workers at 10 facilities.
“Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world,” Gabriel Irizarry, a driver at the Skokie delivery station, said in a news release. “They talk a big game about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does not respect us and our right to negotiate for better working conditions and wages. We can’t even afford to pay our bills.”
Amazon said it doesn’t expect the strike to impact holiday shipments. A spokesperson said the company builds its sites close to where customers are, schedules shipping windows, and works with large carriers, such as UPS, to deliver products.
“We believe in the strength of our network and plan for contingencies to minimize potential operational impact or costs,” the Amazon spokesperson said.
The labor dispute is the most high-profile action yet in an escalating dispute between union members and the $2 trillion company. The Amazon union movement started in March 2022, when workers at a large Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse became the first in the U.S. to vote to unionize.
